Cinematical

In researching this list, I made two realizations: most horror films don't bother with supporting casts; the supporters are often ghosts and monsters and supernatural forces (the other humans tend not to listen). And also, there are more great performances by women in horror films. Consider just the list of women who were nominated for -- or won -- Oscars for horror films: Patty McCormack, Janet Leigh, Ruth Gordon, Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Sigourney Weaver, Kathy Bates, Jodie Foster, Juliette Lewis, Toni Collette, etc. Perhaps women are more intuitively in touch with the supernatural. Either way, I think I came up with a pretty good list:

1. Maria Ouspenskaya in The Wolf Man (1941)
Her name's a mouthful, but once you learn to say it, you'll never forget it. She was born in 1876, which put her at about 65 when The Wolf Man was made. She was a theater actor, before the movies were invented, she became an acting teacher and she received two Oscar nominations prior to this role. She plays Maleva (what a great name!), the old gypsy woman, and mother to Bela (Bela Lugosi), who possesses the knowledge of all things werewolf. With eyes like obsidian, her line readings are quiet, mysterious, intelligent, and though she's practically half the size of star Lon Chaney Jr., she towers over him.

2. Christina Ricci in Addams Family Values (1993)
Every once in a while the movie gods smile down and create something wonderful, like the moment that young Ricci walked into the "Addams Family" auditions, hoping for the role of Wednesday. The resulting movie, released in 1991, wasn't very good, but the sequel was much improved and Ricci was so good in both that she clearly announced the beginning of a fascinating career full of brave, unusual choices. With her round, pale face, huge eyes and tiny mouth shaped like a talon, she was scary and funny and just a little bit odd, and when she grew older, she took on a dangerous kind of sexiness. She could be the direct genre descendant of Elsa Lanchester or Barbara Steele.

All movie fans have experienced the sensation of watching something terrible and thinking, "What is this crap? I could totally come up with something better than this!" Well, now you can put your money where your mouth is, as Details magazine is inviting people to submit movie ideas, the best of which will actually be turned into a movie.

Variety has a variety of details on the Details contest. Larry Meistrich, an indie film producer with more than 30 credits to his name (including You Can Count on Me and Sling Blade), will help Details choose the winner and oversee production of the film. All genres and concepts are welcome, and you can submit anything from a rough plot outline to a finished screenplay. There's a $10 entrance fee, but it costs that much just to watch a movie. Making a movie for 10 bucks is a total bargain! Plus, the entrance fee earns you a year's subscription to Details.

Details wants the winning idea to appeal to "intelligent, modern, metropolitan men." Hmm. Is that what Details thinks of itself? Off the top of my head, here are some movie ideas that you can use if you really want to tap into the Details mindset.

• A guy spends $1,000 on a shirt, then reads some articles about the right way to wear the shirt, then tells his friends he spent $1,000 on a shirt, and his friends laugh at him for being a douchebag.

• A magazine writer is working on a tight deadline and can't come up with anything to write about, so he makes up a saucy, non-existent trend ("Are threeways on the upswing?"), farts out 500 words on the subject, stretches it to three pages by filling it with unrelated photos of models wearing expensive underwear, and calls it a day.

• A guy lives his life doing everything he can to appeal to gays while avoiding actually saying he's trying to appeal to gays. (That one's an allegory.)

Anyone else got one? Oh, and as for specifics on how to enter the contest -- no idea. The Variety article doesn't say, and I can't find anything on the Details website, either. Thanks to Stephen in the comments for finding info on how to enter.

[photo via LA Weekly]

Here's a round-up of some stuff (and things) currently making waves online:

--They hosted a Zombie Dance-Off in Los Angeles over the weekend as part of Thrill the World '08 where, according to LA Weekly, folks gather to perform the zombie dance from Michael Jackson's Thriller in 91 cities in 12 countries across the world "in an attempt to hold the world record for the most people to do the 'Thriller' dance at one time ..." Check out the photo above and this video of the actual performance (and is that a zombie slave Princess Leia -- right on!) ...



-- Natalie Portman is taking on some more adult roles as Variety reports the gal has signed on to star in Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, opposite Scott Cohen and Charlie Tahan. Portman will play a woman who fixes her marriage through bonding with her stepson.

-- While Anne Hathaway stars in Dancing with Sheba, Amy Adams has signed on to headline the film Daughter of the Queen of Sheba. This one, based on the life of NPR correspondent Jacki Lyden, tells of a woman who "uses her mother's madness and delusions to empower herself." See, and all I did was use my mother's cupcakes to gain weight. Clearly I came out a winner in the end.

-- Cracked has up some leaked excerpts from Miley Cyrus' "Memoir", and since we're talking about those warped minds over at Cracked, I wouldn't exactly take this too seriously. Among the different chapters ("Chapter Twelve: Insanity Fair! Lol. No, But Seriously, This Was Humiliating") was this image of Cyrus as Venom. [via Superpunch]



New Watchmen, Star Trek posters after the jump ...

After getting the chance to run through the world of heists and intrigue in The Brothers Bloom (wonderfully, I might add), Adrien Brody is getting into the underworld delivery business. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Mr. Brody is going to be pursued by cops and crime bosses alike when he stars in a new action flick called The Courier.

As the story goes, Brody will play "a daredevil courier trying to deliver a briefcase to an underworld figure who can't be found." Is he a daredevil for the ways he delivers packages, or a daredevil for taking on work from crime bosses? That remains to be seen. But the writing duo of Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (who helped out on both the 3:10 to Yuma and Wanted scripts) have written the screenplay and Russell Mulcahy is directing.

This means teaming one of my favorite actors with the director of the only film I ever walked out of (Ricochet). Since I was only 14 at the time, I'm prepared to give Mulcahy another chance, although The Scorpion King 2 and Resident Evil: Extinction make me a little nervous. But if the director of Heathers can also helm Hudson Hawk, anything is possible.

"I'm thankful for that guy. Nevermind the fact that he brought us Seth Rogen, which I'm really thankful for, but he did shatter that glass ceiling and made my job much easier in terms of, like, trying to get the next one made." -- Kevin Smith on Judd Apatow

Last month, I traveled to Red Bank, New Jersey and enjoyed a very cool lunch with a very cool dude by the name of Kevin Smith. While we scarfed down some tasty Italian food, I recorded roughly an hour and a half of our conversation -- all of which would be way too much to read in one post. Thus, I've decided to break some stuff up into sections and post them separately, then I'll be back with much more in the coming days leading up to the October 31st release of the pretty hilarious Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Here, Smith talks at length about Judd Apatow, the impact Judd's films have had on his own work and what sort of advice he received from the director of Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin while making Zack and Miri. Check it out.

Kevin Smith: "I heard someone describe it thusly, and I kinda agree: 'Kevin Smith opened the door for Judd Apatow, and then Judd Apatow in turn opened the door for Kevin Smith.' I can't argue with that. For years we've been doing these movies that were a mixture of raunchy and sentimentality and sweet. And I've always felt like the ceiling for that movie with that formula is $30 million. You can't get the rom-com people and you can't get the raunch people in full -- you're gonna get people who like a mixture of the two and you're left with whoever can tolerate both.

40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad come along and they shatter that glass ceiling. They proved this sh*t's commercially viable. So the first time I see 40 Year Old Virgin on DVD, I'm like, 'Holy shit! Somebody made a movie like I would've made it."

Earlier this afternoon, Marvel sent out a press release officially announcing not only Jon Favreau's involvement as director on Iron Man 2 and executive producer on The Avengers, but also that as part of his four-picture deal, Robert Downey Jr. will indeed reprise the role of Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) in both Iron Man 2 (due out on May 7, 2010) and The Avengers movie due out July, 2011.

As far as The Avengers goes, here's the brief snippet included in the press release: "In a movie event, THE AVENGERS will bring together the super hero team of Marvel Comics characters for the first time ever, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and more, as they are forced to band together to battle the biggest foe they've ever faced." No director has been announced yet for that film, and Marvel did not say whether Edward Norton would reprise his role as well, though it's nice to see Favreau involved in some capacity. Of course, the presence of Downey Jr. will definitely do wonders for both Iron Man 2 and The Avengers ... and one imagines that fourth film would be Iron Man 3. The press release also goes on to officially announce the casting of Don Cheadle as Rhodey in Iron Man 2. Check out the full release after the jump.

What say you? Who should direct The Avengers now that Favreau is definitely out of the running?

I usually don't heavily rant here on Cinematical, but one of the stories that fired me up was the news that Footloose was getting remade into a cinematic musical with Zac Efron. No, this isn't a remake of the live musical a la Producers, but rather a straight remake from the film. Now, Variety reports that the project is being fast-tracked and could start production this spring. First, however, Peter Sollet (the director of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) is penning a rewrite of Jon Hartmere's script. Then we can watch our beloved '80s classic get Efronized. In the meantime, the songs are being cooked up -- ones that will combine new tunes with some of the old favorites. Yeah, I'm still not sold.

In more drug-centric news: It looks like The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which Gus Van Sant grabbed in June of last year, is still moving forward. The Hollywood Reporter posts that Fox Searchlight has picked up the project. However, they're not sharing any news about when the film will get made or released. Maybe never? Yes, I'm bitter about this project too, but that's just because I was not happy with how he handled Tom Robbins and Blake Nelson's work, so I really don't want Tom Wolfe added to the mix. What do you think? Can Van Sant handle the lives of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters?

With filthy, foul-mouthed R-rated comedy making a huge comeback (thanks, in part, to the success of Judd Apatow's films) coupled with the fact that the original cast of American Pie aren't exactly A-listin' it up on the big screen lately -- well, it doesn't take a brainiac to imagine some folks might want to revive the popular teen sex comedy franchise and stick a new one in theaters. Seeing as the direct-to-DVD installments featuring Eugene Levy all did well for Universal, now might be the perfect time to reunite this cast -- all of whom could probably use the extra paycheck (ahem, we're looking at you Tara Reid).

According to Moviehole, that's exactly what Universal is looking to do. Though no one has officially joined the cast (I think it's easy to say Eugene Levy would do it for a credit and a gift certificate to the Olive Garden), but the site claims things are inching along and an announcement could be made soon-ish. One imagines any sort of theatrical sequel would revolve around the married lives of Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), and perhaps they'll tap in to the recent big-screen pregnancy boom and churn out something like American Baby ... or whatever.

What do you think? Is there room for another big-screen American Pie film? Would you see it?

First off I want it made clear: I'm not knocking the DirecTV service, which I have used in the past and had no problems with. No, what I'm talking about is the room full of marketing whiz-kids who got together and decided that wedging their sales pitches into well-known movies would be a good idea. I've seen the ads mostly during sporting events: There's the T2 one, which is obnoxious but not all that offensive. There's the Back to the Future one, which really gets under my skin. And then there's the National Lampoon's Vacation one, which is played during (literally) EVERY break in the World Series. (Hey thanks, ad-makers, for ruining an otherwise amusing scene in a movie I really like.)

But both of these ads could be overlooked, ignored, dismissed as obviously tacky, and never thought of again ... but then there's the DirecTV "Poltergeist" commercial, which is in such poor taste that it boggles my mind. Here it is for those who haven't seen it yet -- and yes, I fully acknowledge the irony of sharing a clip that I actively detest, but let's see if you can figure out why it sickens me so much...
Yeah, it's because that little girl died tragically at 12 years of age. And everyone over the age of 20 knows it. So instead of thinking about how great Poltergeist is, or how maybe DirecTV is a cool service, all we're thinking is "Jeez, Craig T. Nelson should have known better. This is really uncool." And the same goes for Robert Patrick, Christopher Lloyd, and Christie Brinkley. (Monika B. shared her own thoughts on this ad campaign a few weeks ago.)

On top of all this stupidity is a bigger issue: If DirecTV is trying to appeal directly to hardcore movie fans, they should come up with a better approach than "Hey look, our ads have been inserted into your favorite movies!" Maybe something that actually, I dunno, shows a little respect for the act of film-watching. Like maybe the ad shows a bunch of people sitting down to enjoy Vacation on DirecTV, and someone keeps flipping the station to TV commercials, so in comes Chevy Chase to smack the guy. You can have that pitch for free if you promise never to exploit a dead child again.

Kit Kittredge -- An American Girl
It's the feature film for all the little girls out there who have American Girl dolls, and those who have long since grown up. Abigail Breslin stars as a young, budding reporter who tries to help her family during the Great Depression. She's surrounded by the financial woes of the time, plus prejudice and a situation that asks for a little Nancy Drewing. It's a must-see for the kids, and anyone who can enjoy a youthful dip into the past. Buy It.

Billy the Kid
Jennifer Venditti had come to the small Maine town to do some casting for Bugcrush, but she found something better -- Billy. Spending a week with the 15-year-old, Venditti captured a young man's highs and lows, his triumphs and vulnerabilities. The film is wildly funny, but also a telling account of the danger of assumption, the troublesome labels that get put on us during our youth, and the tribulations of the unique. Check out my review for more information. Buy It.

Hell Ride
Presented by Quentin Tarantino, this Larry Bishop film was pretty much ravaged by critics (11% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). But if you like the rumble of a bike barreling down the road, Hell Ride follows some badass bikers trying to avenge the death of one of their own by a rival gang. There's lots of talent in this puppy -- Madsen, Balfour, Hopper, Carradine -- but unless you really like to just lose yourself in footage of bikers on bikes, Skip It.

Also on DVD: Journey to the Center of the Earth (see: Blu-ray), Tinker Bell (see: Blu-ray), Zombie Strippers.